Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced the cut-off date for people to be eligible to benefit from the government's coronavirus furlough scheme has been extended in a boost for thousands of workers. Under the terms of the original Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme employees had to be on a company's payroll by February 28 in order to be eligible. Chancellor Rishi Sunak today announced the coronavirus furlough scheme cut-off date is being extended to March 19There had been major concerns that the February 28 cut-off date would leave many people who have recently changed jobs without any financial support. The original cut-off date was put in place by the government to guard against fraudulent claims being made for the cash. That calculation was made before the government decided to extend the eligibility cut-off date.

Source: Daily Mail April 15, 2020 15:29 UTC